Why is Halo 2's Campaign SO AWESOME?!

in a few hours one of the most eagerly awaited videogames finally goes on sale free preparing to rewrite retail history videogame is expected to have bigger first-day revenues than any movie has ever had an opening day at the box off make it retail launch an entertainment show dozens of grown men and probably about three women have crawled out of their parents basements tonight to be personalized by the new video game Halo 2 video gamers across the country are anxiously awaiting the midnight release of a game called halo 2 35 minutes and Counting for Halo 2 to go on are you sure Lika destroyed reach was 50 times this size right this way there are few sequels that come out as strong and booming as Halo 2 but the question is how do you build a worthy sequel off of a masterpiece like combat of all especially when no sequel a trilogy was planned in the first place Bungie answered that with a greater emphasis on story world building and outrageous hypetrain and a multiplayer that would forever change the face of Xbox and online gaming no game up to this point I'd come out as guns-a-blazing that halo 2 did and it brought with it some of the sickest fucking guitar riffs known to man so sick they even added the halo 2 theme to Guitar Hero 3 the most popular video game of 2007 this game is what cemented halo as a serious contender in the gaming market it made Master Chief a recognizable icon it was one of the first games to really take on a more cinematic movie like approach with its campaign halo 2 even had the balls to cast big-name actors like Ron Perlman Keith David Kevin Michael Richardson who has been in everything as well as propelling voice actors like gen Taylor and Steve down into famous Paragons of the video game industry halo 2 was so fuckin cool they had bands create music for the game like Breaking Benjamin Incubus and Hoobastank in fact Breaking Benjamin didn't receive a penny for having blow me away in the game they did it for free for publicity which certainly paid off as the Sun would be used in hundreds of mediocre montages across the globe if halo seee was the golden child then hey Luke – what's a badass younger brother that just didn't give a fuck but it ain't all sunshine and rainbows upon its release halo 2 was praised but not without a heap of criticism aimed at its story campaign level design the e3 demo that had shockingly little to do with the actual game and who could forget get into where combat Evolved got universal praise halo 2 was seen as somewhat of a mixed bag to make matters worse since its release the comically hellish development has been revealed with such wild controversy and praise surrounding halo 2 it's time we pack an extra SMG we come daily tabata and VX are our way straight into this so right off the bat halo 2 starts where we ended in combat of all though not exactly in the same place this is the first time we ever learn anything about the Covenant that is in just a lian's in space your ears and eyes are glued to the screen if the events of halo are accounted by the Covenant in a sort of trial this opening is fucking brilliant for several reasons one we gain a better understanding of our enemy we see the Covenant has its own society rules leaders and hierarchy too it allows people who didn't play the first game to get a brief understanding of what happened three it adds more context to the events of the first game and gives motivation to the Covenant for it sets the stage for arbiters conflict with the chief five we see that Captain Keyes's legacy lives on through his daughter Miranda and six the consequences of our actions are being laid out before us so what we did in the last game is having an immediate effect on this one I mean you can't ask for much more in an opening cutscene it also plants the seeds for the character arc of the arbiter showing the covenants perspective is only half of the game and as the cutscenes progress we get a great dichotomy the UNSC is celebrating their victory while the Covenant is enacting punishment for the arbiters failure you get a sense of what both sides are about in just a few sentences and with some nice imagery that can be acceptable all over Persia both sides are so similar in structure Lord hoods equivalent are the prophets Master Chief to the arbiter Tartarus to Johnson but the Covenant are far more fanatical they're basically like if the Catholic Church acquired incredibly sophisticated technology and then if there are three Pope's that all started calling themselves gods and conquering other worlds with badass names like truth mercy and regret we get a sense of the Covenant hierarchy and what makes them tick and the classic graphics this scene where arbiter walks down the hall was one of the first times a video game actually looked like a movie to me the lighting the music the dialogue everything just screamed cinematic we want our game to look like a movie we want it to look like something that's just unbelievable to experience they marketed halo to like a movie and it paid off like a movie breaking the world record for most revenue generated by an entertainment product in the first 24 hours this game out grossed Dead Man's Chest just to put that in perspective and what blur did with the remastered cutscenes is basically how I saw this game back in 2004 the story for Halo 2 grew out of all the elements that weren't seen in combat of all this process began with the end of Halo and realizing all the stuff that we had left out inhaler one we focused on the humans perspective their fate at the hands the Covenant but we never we got too much into the Covenant side of the story itself what are the motivations of the flood the Covenant and how does it all tie together what is the bigger picture beyond the one halo ring this game certainly had a great beginning but delving behind-the-scenes opened up a whole can of lickilicky low-low worms the Bungie process of making cool games has worked up until now but is it possible that there's an amount of pressure or or an ambition that's beyond what we can actually do so if we're going to talk halo 2 campaign and we got to talk about the development of it as that shapes much of what is right and wrong with Halo 2 the notorious yet brilliant III trailer took seven months for Bungie to complete and showed much of the game that would later be scrapped and described as all smoke and mirrors you put people about to see is an operation in progress that was a real time feat no smokin bears pre-recorded bullshit this whole section had to be cut as the Xbox couldn't handle that environment couldn't render the cliffhanger ending was a result of massive story cuts because of being forced to ship the game on time you know we can't wait another day you know I'm sorry we came away yeah mess come out now it's really great to have this deadline that we can't move at all because it's forcing us to kind of finish it when the producers come over and pry our hands from the keyboard and say okay you can't touch it anymore we've got to start manufacturing I think that's the point where we're going to have to stop and that's going to be the invitation and many Bungie employees felt the lack of Polish at release was a result of a low – shortcomings there's seemingly no end to the ideas and features that were cut from Halo – because of time constraints and a deadly ambition you know what I knew about the campaign was they probably cut I mean at least a third of the total game maybe as much as half I don't honestly know and that's why I halo 2 ended up in such a jarring ending it's truly staggering I mean there were plans for a whole level to be on a covenant ship but instead they had to settle for this awesome cutscene there were those flood juggernaut forms found hidden in the files and so on it makes you wonder what if what if this game had launched the way Bungie intended it well it probably would have been one of the greatest games of all time without it down and I think it still is but I can understand why some Halo fans were upset when the game didn't launch the way they expected Bungie had made a lot of promises and didn't fulfill them all which is typical for game development quite frankly I think it's a miracle that halo 2 released in the state it did but however upset you might have been or still are with halo 2 I don't think anyone was more upset than Bungie themselves I don't think anybody in this world ever done anything worthwhile without being their own worst critic we messed up like we didn't have the design down we didn't have the story down once we actually started to see how long the missions were taken to to produce and how long they were taking the design and script and it just wasn't going to work after doing extensive research into a low twos development it seems the cause of the massive cuts was bungees own optimism and ambition no real malice behind it just bad luck mixed with a strong desire to make the most epic sequel ever despite the hell they went through I'd say they achieved what they set out to do for the most part it was extremely challenging to wrap all those different you know ambitious angles into one nice smooth polished product and especially at the end for the campaign it just there wasn't enough runway to land what we what we really wanted to land but when it comes to gameplay you'd think it would be an automatic improvement where it not for the absurd legendary difficulty and at times piss-poor level design I'd say it is I love Halo 2 to death but no matter how many times I've played a ton legendary no matter how good I think I am I always get pissed off because it's just not fair but life isn't fair act man shut up game should be fair we got level design that's so bad and enemies that are so strong you can literally die before you even see your fucking crosshair up here you know something is wrong there really is no sweet spot for Halo 2 difficulty wise I've tried it on heroic with a variety of skulls but it doesn't have that perfection that combat Evolved did where each difficulty feels like exactly what it's supposed to be and for whatever reason probably time constraints quick no anytime something in Halo 2 fields off 99% of the time it's time constraints but for whatever reason Bungie decided to simplify the gameplay no health bar regenerating health and this took away one of the best parts of cee when you had a full bar health you could afford to play recklessly you can get away with some pretty crazy shit your strategize around your health bar and available health packs but in Halo 2 they said fuck all that you don't get no stinkin health bar I can think of no better way to illustrate and prove the ludicrous difficulty of Halo 2 than this so in halo 1 it takes exactly 23 shots to kill you with a plasma rifle now do you have any idea how many it takes in Halo 2 you'll want a hint 6 6 fucking shots and you're dead they shoot the guns faster to a single burst can kill you in less than a second what the flip yep is this warzone firefight the exact time two kills I recorded just by standing still was ten and a quarter seconds for seee and one in a six seconds for Halo 2 I mean what in truths name happened well from what I understand the development of Halo 2 as we all know was hellish at best so in a time crunch Bungie realized the game wasn't difficult enough but didn't have time to properly balance and tweak the number of enemies and out tough they were so what they did was a ramp up the lethality as they didn't have time to go through every encounter to rebalance it so what we got was a frustrating and difficult legendary experience and if you'd like an in-depth video on what makes it so difficult keep your eyes peeled for an incoming collab with hokey bird 4 to 8 why is halo 2's campaign so difficult and sniper jackals I don't got shit to say about those guys their reputation as one of the most deadly enemies in video game history speaks for itself let's not forget co-op had increased difficulty because if either person died it resets a checkpoint as if legendary wasn't difficult enough without a permanent iron skull on but even with it's absurd difficulty the level design is for the most part inferior to combat of all remember all those big areas with vehicles that make the world feel expansive and open or a lot of the sections became incredibly linear or condensed into smaller tighter locations there are some standouts like the Banshee fights in heretic or the tank part in Delta halo but I don't understand why these levels don't offer you more to move around a wider open area or that expansive Explorer type feeling you've gotten see don't get me wrong the level design isn't terrible it's just not as good as see and a badass younger brother like Halo 2 should have nailed that but good news is there are hardly any repeated sections like combat Evolved had of course those are just the negative points and for me it's much more enjoyable on heroic with the mythic skull on the amount of new sandbox elements in Halo 2 is unreal dual wielding always felt so satisfying it's blasting things to bits the guys on the front cover with two smg's broke and what I loved most was adding the Sentinel beam and energy sword as weapons for the player to use it was like oh yeah those awesome cool weapons you saw in the first game now you can use them you got covenant carbine snipers brute plasma rifles brute shot grenade launchers the Gosport hog Spectre boosts for the ghosts and banshees ability to pilot the Wraith new turrets the phantoms it was all great stuff and of course all the new types of enemies wide elites and grunts brutes drones jetpack elites sentinels with shields and a stronger weapon those giant ass robots the enforcers they can pick up your vehicle and squish you like a bug hunters no longer had that pitiful one-shot weakness and we're buffed with improved melee attacks and a freaking beam cannon some elite flood forms had shields I mean whatever you say about Halo 2 you can't say it didn't feel new or add in a bunch of new awesome stuff now think back to seee and what the levels were like basically everything was rooted in place you couldn't move anything but Halo 2 added movable objects things you could manipulate things you could destroy as vehicles took damage they'd have chunks and debris flying up I mean that was really cool stuff it might seem somewhat simple now but holy shit did that create an immersive world where you can just run around hit stuff and watch it fly all over the place and it's crazy to think a lot of FPS games even released today don't have this type of environmental interaction fights between factions are back making gameplay fun dynamic and not always a you versus them sort of gameplay and though awesome it's not as grandiose in scale as combat Evolved and when I talked with Hardy LaBelle the lead designer of combat Evolved z– multiplayer he said that Bungie had seen GTA Vice City and they were so enthralled by the idea of vehicle jacking they added it into Halo which was freaking awesome and it was a good way to balance vehicles and give players on foot more options also the AI of your allies was vastly improved now your teammates actually contributed and helped out instead of firing three round bursts every five minutes from a sixty round gun smart players utilize this new mechanic of giving your allies guns in order to maximize kill potential and survivability decided a new layer of strategy that made replaying a level so fun and holy mother of Poseidon there's a part where you get to fight with goddamn hunters that right there is the most badass awesome thing in existence 10 out of 10 halo 2 also added boss fights up first for the series that would never really be fleshed out in the later games except for scarabs and Guilty Spark in Halo 3 and warden eternal in Halo 5 and we all know how that went assistant Locke while not the greatest example of boss fights and FPS games you got to respect the ambition the bosses you fought were more impactful because you the player had to take them down which is much more satisfying than watching a cutscene honestly if halo 2 had the same satisfying fair difficulty that combat Evolved did I'd say it's the best game in the series but I'd say it's the best game in the series no question because this game added so many new weapons vehicles elements sandbox tools but it's not as easy to enjoy all of that when the game for me is either too hard or too easy and that's halo twos most critical fault people identify humans people care about humans more so we really have to we really have to put the herder in a position of the story where he matters and where the player cares about it you want to look at this guy and you want to see that why he's just as cool as a mass chief depending on your view one of halo 2's best or worst additions was being able to play as the arbiter we are the arm of the province on I do want to play the arbiter was one of halo twos most controversial additions as people wanted and expected to play as the chief quite frankly I'd agree with them that is if arbiter wasn't such a badass likeable character world water crowd they came to hear me big they would be disappointed Bungie had huge balls to go forward with this decision of a campaign split between two perspectives but it ultimately paid off the arbiter is two elites what chief is two humans both are revered iconic figures that carry the weight and hopes of their people and this is fitting given that elites were always meant to be your equal now chief has won now there is that idea that halo two had false marketing and showed a game or story that people expected like saving earth and all of that but it wasn't false marketing obviously they omitted the role of arbiter because that was a twist it's the player at the start of the game you don't realize that you're actually going to play this elite general who's been disgraced but you get this quick glimpse at that's the flip side of what happened to the Covenant at the end of the first game a couple levels into the game you realize oh my god I get I get to play this guy and the same thing goes for the grave mind and the flood of course we see in these trailers that the defense of Earth was meant to be a big subject and it's not like it didn't have any screen time or missions in the campaign that we got but it was downplayed so no halo two didn't have any false marketing and these two characters are glimpses into both sides of this giant war and instead of viewing it as a boring one-sided aliens are bad humans good the addition of the arbiter allows this conflict to be fleshed out this time around it it's essentially we're telling two stories Dainius we're going back and forth from level to level so just to illustrate how important valve atomy is let's imagine how different a lo2 would be without him we'd have nobody on the opposing side to relate to our guide us through the Covenant and because shipmaster is such a crucial point of arbiters character arc he'd be scrapped too and without the story of Halo 2 having a larger emphasis on the Covenant side I don't think playable elites ever would have been a thing in Halo the Covenant Civil War would be trashed and what we'd be left with is for villains we know next to nothing about and a plot that would be the exact same as combat Evolved without arbiter we completely lose any understanding or empathy of the Covenant so I think halo 2 is better off with the arbiter as we gain so much from his presence especially a great rivalry between two pinnacles of badass relax I'd rather not piss this thing off b'man what makes halo 2 story so awesome you ask well it's the characters of course they all serve a purpose they all got motivations friends enemies rivals they're all likeable whether hero or villain it doesn't matter how deep the lore is or how complexly woven the universe is we don't have characters that we can understand or relate to so let's take a look at halo 2's cast chief is more or less the same but this time around he's got some brand new armor and a chip on his shoulder he's like yeah I fucking destroyed that ring that was gonna kill everything here yeah fuck yeah yeah chief barely speaks in this game in fact I think he's only got 15 lines of dialogue but his character is shown through his actions and what's happening around him not to mention this guy has the best freaking one-liners just one question what if we miss I want Cortana who I think looks coolest in the og graphics has a new haircut and is back with her signature wit and cunning she always has a plan and she always has a back-up plan then we got Johnson who works as the comic relief alongside Cortana he helps you out from time to time and always keeps the troops motivated like a real sergeant would Miranda and Lord hood mostly serve as exposition and what they say usually raises the stakes or reveals the danger and this is fine because not every character needs to be as deep and complex as Harry Potter Guilty Spark is back but his screen time was reduced he reveals the truth to both the heretics arbiter and Tartarus he also helps you out in the final level shutting down the ring of course the Marines grunts elites brutes all got their own personas and had some personality charm and comedy to the gameplay now the grave mind is viewed by many as a controversial unnecessary character people thought this Venus flytrap being the brains of the flood eliminated any mystery behind the flood but I say we had the mystery in the first game and that was good enough so now we're like oh holy fuck this is the king of the flood definitely one of the coolest video game characters and its existence makes sense when we look back at what happened to captain Keith who is going to become a new Grave mind just the idea of thousands of sentient beings clumped together with their knowledge and memories to create and fuel this abomination with only the goal of consuming all life in the galaxy I mean that's fucking scary and creepy without the grave mind the second appearance of the flood would have just turned them into cliche space zombies so he's a welcome addition to the cast Tartarus is the big brute that helps characterize and give insight into this new formidable race of violent barbaric alien species that roam in packs that huge as gravity hammer shows that he means business and he serves no one but the hierarchs looking to prove himself in his race as superior to the elites The Heretic leader represents the site of the Covenant that expanded seeing through the lies and manipulation of the profits fighting these heretics sets the stage for arbiter to learn the truth and do what's right the hierarchs are basically space popes as I said before they rule with religious fanaticism regret being younger and more reckless mercy being older and wise and truth being the in-between manipulator of all he's cunning and vicious and will use any means necessary to achieve power finally we've got arbiter who has the deepest character arc starting off as a Supreme Commander then stripped of his rank his honor and pride subjugated to torture and humiliation in front of a huge crowd he learns to find new purpose and serving the hierarchy as the arbiter but he isn't accepted by ship master of Tartarus eventually coming face-to-face with the man who destroyed everything he had everyone expects him to die but as a story progresses both Tartarus and shipmaster gained some respect for him near the end there's a moment when arbiter is talking to Tartarus you could tell he doesn't want to fight he wants Tartarus to learn and understand the truth so it can come to a peaceful resolution but the stubborn brute can't accept that he's been manipulated and serving a lie so he snaps you see every character represents a point of view from a different group in the Halo universe because of this we see and understand so much more about what it is we're taking part in all these characters work and play off each other to form a cohesive universe and make it feel real their humanity we regret being halia bastard we regret coming to earth and we most definitely regret the core just go up all raggedy ass play hoorah please use caution this reclaim her delicate neck forward Oracle and I'll rip your eyes of its socket the dialogue in halo 2 gets its own section because of how absolutely brilliant it is and how incredible the voice acting and delivery is this is not your grave but you are welcome man how the hell did you make those away that's deep Bradley Baker oh man that guy's known for making all sorts of crazy noises with his mouth those of you that have ever written your own stories or fanfiction know that dialogue is one of the hardest things that do well without a doubt this game is some of the best writing I've ever seen in a video game nearly every line is quotable memorable and me mobile if I had to narrow down the list of quotes to use in this video it probably be about 80% of halo2 story one vivid memory I have playing this game with my friends was the speech half jaw gives to his troops the first time I saw this my buddy had recited that speech verbatim as it played and that's when I realized what the characters were saying was so powerful on the blood of our fathers on the blood of our sons we swore to a ball becoming your breath the dialogue in Halo 2 does everything it makes you feel like a badass your pal where is he going it makes you laugh you told me there wouldn't be any cameras and you told me you are going to wear something nice makes you sad conference the prophets of between us makes you scared and most important when it comes to video games it gives you the information you need to know in an interesting way because let's be honest exposition in video games is usually handled in the most boring non engaging sleep-inducing way but take this section here allow me to point out how brilliantly this is handled ma'am there's an object coming into view now Cortana what exactly am I looking that another female Tom say what Miranda's facial expression indicates something serious we're wondering what she sees she asked the question and as the floating debris flies off screen to reveal the halo Cortana says that another hey this is not my fan events are being repeated and the twist that there are more halo rings was honestly unexpected and mind-blowing at the time Johnson surprise is meant to mimic the surprise we the audience feel in the moment no way his cigar falls out of his mouth adds a little bit of comedy to there's so much packed into every moment of Halo 2 story I could describe it for hours sir permission to leave the station for what purpose Master Chief permission granted I love this because the Lord hood starts off all serious then he's just like all right fuck it the game opts for a less-is-more style of storytelling for example with two lines of dialogue halo 2 shows us that the arbiter is a highly important rank with a long history do you know where we are the mausoleum of the orbiter quite sir he arrests the vanguard of the great journey every arbiter from first to last each one created and consumed in times of extraordinary crisis with this line by mercy we learned that the formation of the Covenant came with numerous conflicts attaining other hunters the great rebellion were it not for the arbiters the Covenant would have broken long ago but the location these characters are in and the few lines of dialogue they say we learn so much about the story in the universe these key points serve as excellent areas to flesh out an expanded material so now as a player you're thinking about the bigger picture how was the covenant formed you become curious about stuff like that now it's one thing to write good dialogue but it adds a whole new layer when the body language of a character reflects what they're expressing when arbiters said I'm already good indeed we see the great shame in his body language he's groveling covering his Marcos shame we see tell vadoma at his most vulnerable in the presence of the higher art and his people's most sacred role even on my me I do not belong in their presence halo 2 is also good with the subtle moments like when shipmaster is given his speech the grunts are kind of fucking around then in another scene we see a grunts lip while he's trying to get on at turret you might think these are inconsequential details but they reinforce the role of the grunt and these details are all over a low – from the way the different characters move react and it's especially well captured in the remastered cutscenes making their facial expressions much more realistic one of the coolest details about Halo 2 that you probably didn't notice was when shipmaster is given a speech all the other elites are reciting it and you see their mouth is moving but in this scene we see arbiter isn't this small detail shows us that arbiter is not one of them he's something of an outcast which is reinforced in the coming dialogue this armor suits you but it cannot hide that mark nothing ever will you are the arbiter the will the province of these are my elites their lives matter to me yours does not that makes two of us there's a reason why you hang on to every word that is said in a low – of course it's well written but each character has a different way of expressing themselves they have unique discernible personality it's short sweet and none of it is without purpose if there is a golden standard for dialogue and video games and especially first-person shooters this is it geez you get to earth good luck after lunch room the truth now make a girl of promise if you know you can't keep it you there's a lot of stuff that happens in Halo 2 it almost borders on being too much but the game strikes a nice balance and that neither spends too much or too little time on one plot point it's a split focus as chief you got to defend Earth and you discover a new ring you move in to take out one of the prophets to cripple the Covenant then you get captured and have to track down the index to prevent the ring from firing on the flipside as the arbiter you work with the Covenant allies to quell the heretics then you must retrieve the sacred icon figure out the truth get betrayed betrayed betrayed and finally mount up with shipmaster to stop Tartarus from activating the ring but because we're switching sides and there's so much going on and the cut content some things aren't really explained like how the Covenant found earth or how Guilty Spark ended up with the heretics but thankfully many of these gaps were filled in the terminals and great job by 343 on expanding the story and background of a game we all love we get to see the taming of the hunters the heretics learning the truth the history of the arbiter and selves atomy how important his role is we see the grunt rebellion and who knew we could feel empathy for such hideous creatures and the way this arbiter hands a plasma pistol to this grunt leader it brings a tear to my eye and gives new respect to what I used to see as nothing but lowly cannon fodder one of the reasons halo 2 story turned out the way it did because writer Joe Staton kept pushing for more and more and kept pushing the boundaries and I think his immense passion to tell this story this vision he had to share it with the world is part of the reason why the story of halo 2 is as good as it is we're actually pretty good at slamming stuff in right at the end as a matter of fact I think we do some of our best work that way now of course there is the ending and actually I made a whole video on that ending so if you want to hear me talk about that check it out it's a plot that keeps your attention from start-to-finish never loses momentum it never gets dull your jumping around throughout a lot of levels but every section is just as entertaining as the last if there's one thing that sticks with me from halo to story it's the amount of fields I felt while feeling nothing says good storytelling like a wide range of emotions that you feel while experiencing it a Marty O'Donnell our Lord and Savior praise His name absolutely kills it with the soundtrack and I mean kills it if I was stranded on an island with only one Halo soundtrack it'd be halo 2 I'll never forget the excitement I felt when those drop pods crashed on Delta halo or how worried I was when chief got blasted into the water or that holy fuck I get to use the energy sword moment working with Steve Vai and Michael Salvatori Marty created a soundtrack with so many unique pieces that flow with the gameplay and cutscenes like when Tartarus and the brutes are dragging arbiter to the profits and that slow creepy drumming beat serves to characterize the vast and mysterious city of High Charity what makes this campaign and story memorable is it has so many of those moments that stick with you vivid moments for example when you start the mission uprising an arbiter looks at a bloody rock to pick up a plasma pistol it sets the stage for what you're about to see the brutes have betrayed the elites and massacred them you're able to feel empathy and sadness just by the visuals and music without a single word being said this is why I made such a big deal about show don't tell in my Halo 5 review compare and contrast these two tragedies alright we are shown the elites are being massacred but in Halo 5 we are told four colonies have been destroyed by the Guardians all right when you're in the shoes of a character and you experience something firsthand it's way more impactful than having it told to you by the promise what happens done they had shed our brothers blood and for that they must die halo 2 is chock-full of these moments like you'll see the mausoleum of the auditor in one cutscene then later in the game you'll fight through that area as the chief or in the firth cutscene we see the arbiters trial and then in grave mine we start the mission there so the game feels connected in these locations leave an imprint on us speaking of which the Covenant technology and high charity in general just looks so fucking fantastic now a narrative like this becomes much more powerful when it gives you something to think about or more importantly when it teaches you something it may be difficult to hold on to what we believed in but better to admit we've been living or serving a lie than to keep pretending otherwise that's what arbiter taught me when to admit I'm wrong what would the world be like if it were ruled entirely by religion there's more than what I listed here but I want you to think about what the greater message behind halo 2 is and share it in the comments it's kind of hard to explain but you just feel a lot of emotion when you play through halo 2 and that's a sign that the story and game has made a connection now this video is mostly about the campaign but it's worth noting that halo 2 cemented the series as a serious contender and franchise it's what really made Master Chief the face of the Xbox and the cultural icon is today and none of this would have been possible if it weren't for the robust multiplayer and Xbox Live that kept people coming back giving players the ability to play as elites and customize them with the different colors and emblems that showed up on your armor I mean that shit was awesome it was revolutionary and it was mind-blowing to play games of Halo online on a console for the first time ever and it was this jump into online multiplayer that would fuel gaming culture and hundreds of other games and companies would follow suit trying to emulate hallo – success overall hallo – may have a campaign with no perfect difficulty it may have promised too many things it didn't deliver it might not have had as good of level design of Cee but what it does have is the best story in the series a story that makes you feel interesting new enemies to fight and weapons to kill them with and characters and dialogue that you'll remember for years and that is why halo 2's campaign is so awesome [Applause] you